EU Bureaucrats Feel ‘Guilty, Despised And Harassed’ Finds New Survey

An extensive survey of EU bureaucrats at the European Commission has revealed they feel rather hard done by. Their trade union, the European Civil Service Federation, is now complaining that their members “feel misunderstood, guilty, despised and harassed.”

The statement follows the release of a survey of 33,197 officials, which was reported in The Times. 65 per cent of commission staff questioned felt the institution did not care for their wellbeing, and a further 52 per cent were of the opinion that their superiors were not communicating with them sufficiently.

Pawel Swidlicki, a policy analyst as the think-tank Open Europe, told Breitbart London: “It’s certainly true, that if you look at not only the private sector but many national administrations, that EU officials are well compensated and have relative job security… especially with things like pensions, it definitely lags behind what has happened in the private sector.”

“It appears rather than talent management, a self-awareness course might be in order,” added Swidlicki.

EU officials pay their own uniquely low rate of tax. On an average EU salary, they pay just 16.06 per cent. In the UK, you would expect to pay 33.36 per cent.

EU civil servants are required to work a 37.5 hour week and they can retire at 65 on a potential 70 per cent of their final salary. Their average yearly salary is approximately £67,693 – rising to £78,524.23 if they claim the tax-free 16 per cent expatriate allowance (an estimated 70 per cent of them do so).

“For most people looking at this from the outside, they would say, ‘well, you’ve got it quite good; you don’t realize how good you’ve got it compared to a lot of other people,’” Swidlicki commented.

So why might they feel so sorry for themselves?

“Because the European commission are associated with the economic and political failures [of the European project], the European officials feel as if they are being blamed in part for the problems,” says Swidlicki.

Whether or not they deserve to be blamed, well, you can judge for yourself.